instead of deal making, it's name calling. the top democrat in the senate, accusing the republican speaker of the house of running a dictatorship. they say they haven't given up, but it sounds that way. >> i don't know time wise how it can happen now. >> here we are, once again, at the end of the year, staring at a crisis we should have dealt with literally months ago. >> reporter: without an agreement soon, nearly everybody takes a hit. a schoolteacher with two kids and a salary of $43,000, for example, will face a tax hike of more than $3,000. members of congress helped get us in this mess and they'll pay, too. with incomes of $174,000, they'll pay some $7,500 more in taxes. and it's not just taxes. on january 1, unemployment benefits expire for some 2 million people. you can expect one last effort, including a meeting at the white house with congressional leaders to try to prevent the fiscal cliff from happening. but with just four days left until everybody's taxes go up, there's not a lot of optimism that it can be done in